Dear family and friends,
The past two weeks have been an amazing time here on the campus as about 600 people gathered from around the world for the University of the Nations (UofN) workshop. This is an event that happens every two years where leaders within the UofN gather together to receive from the Lord impartation as we discuss direction and vision for the future. For Jackson and myself this was the first UofN workshop we were a part of and it was truly a special time. There was spiritual impartation in the daily devotionals on Colossians, we built relationships with a lot of wonderful new people and then there was also a lot of practical information that we received. One of those things was a module I attended on how to develop new curriculum, which is particularly useful in our preparation for the UofN in Calabar!
Health wise I had an unpleasant surprise when I woke up on a Friday morning at 3 AM with a terribly painful toothache. It lasted for 3 full hours as if a knife was cutting through the nerve of my tooth. I was able to put some salt which brought some relief but I didn’t have any medication in the house that I could take, nor was there a possibility to go to the dentist. We prayed and I fell asleep and woke up feeling a lot better. However I tried to see the dentist the next day, but they were closed for the weekend and due to bank holiday would not open until Tuesday. The Lord really answered our prayers as the pain didn’t get as bad as it had been, but I did feel a lot of sensitivity in the tooth. When I went to the dentist he said that it looked like I needed a root canal because of the deep filling that was put in the tooth 3 months ago. He sent me to an endodontist who confirmed this fact on an X-ray where the tooth was already showing some decay at the roots that were inflamed. Thankfully I didn’t have any abssess yet, so he said the root canal would be preferable at this point to avoid further infection (especially since I was pregnant). So I underwent this “emergency root canal” last Friday. I am not a hero when it comes to dental procedures, but it actually wasn’t that bad. Afterwards however the dentist said I could have sensitivity on this tooth for 2 weeks and he prescribed painkillers. Since I am pregnant I didn’t want to take them if it wasn’t necessary. So a lot of people prayed with us and it is really a miracle but I didn’t have any after pain on this tooth! Even the sensitivity I had prior to the treatment has gone and it is healing so well.
The baby seems to be fine throughout this procedure, still kicking away and growing so big! How I know that? Well, because my stomach is growing . There are some new pregnancy pictures on the site so you can see what I look like now. 5 more weeks to go!
After the UofN workshop I continued here on the campus in my administrative role assisting Darlene. Jackson just started his SBS Outreach as he taught the bible in a local Hawaiian church. There were about 16 people who attended the first session of the Inductive Bible Studies and they were all really blessed by his teaching and overview of the New Testament. I really enjoyed being there with him and being blessed by what he was sharing.
One of the participants was an elderly Japanese lady living in Hawaii, who had brought a Japanese student whom she had recently met. The Japanese student wanted to know more about the Bible. At the end of the evening the Japanese student wanted to receive Jesus. So Jackson prayed with her and we all celebrated this divine encounter together. Jackson had brought a new bible to the bible studies as he was planning to give it to a guy he had prayed with some days before who also received the Lord. The guy never came however and this Japanese student did not have a bible. So we could give her that one! This was not a coincidence of course! Isn’t God amazing?
Love and blessings,
Jackson & Anneke
